Zimpapers Logo

The E30 is considered by many to be the best M3 ever built and the last time BMW got it right. Not learning from its first mistake, a few years later they nixed the E36.
There’s a compelling argument to be made that it was one of the last proper M3s, a full 200 pounds lighter than the E46 that succeeded it.

Granted, not many will make this argument, but the point is that each generation of the M3 is a hero to someone. 2006 was another dark year, when the last of the previous generation’s E46s were made with a straight-six engine, roundly agreed to be a prerequisite for any “real” M3.

BMW is changing the name of its mid-sized two-doors to the 4-series, echoing the split between the 5-series sedans and 6-series coupes.
They will likely call the high-performance version the M4, making this orange two-door M3 coupe the last of its kind.

But that’s just nomenclature, after all.
It doesn’t matter if BMW subsequently decides to call its hottest coupe the 435i’s Drive Efficient Dynamics Active E Sport 3, it’ll still have two seats and two doors and rear-wheel drive and plenty of power. However, that power will now be forced-induction.

This is no bad thing — just think of the delightful 1-series M coupe — but it is a departure for the bloodline, and the first thing you might miss about the E92 M3. Its glorious naturally-aspirated 4.0-liter V8 snarls all the way up to a soaring 8400 rpm, revving higher and higher in a crescendoing howl as if auditioning to take over lead singing duties for Boston.

More than a feeling, indeed. The 414-hp peak comes just shy of the rev-limiter, and while the cost of all this lofty whirling is a modest 295 lb-ft of torque, the M3’s power plant spins up quickly with the briefest of pedal-pressure. – roadandtrack.com